The Doctor and His Tardis
by phione123
Summary: Long after the Ponds and even Clara, the Doctor is now submerged in loneliness. One fateful day, however, a young girl appears in the TARDIS and has turned the Doctor's world upside down. With his new companion by his side, the Doctor will face the usual dangers and adventures he's had in the past, but what surprises lie in this mystery girl?
1. Mr Lonely

It all started in the TARDIS. When doesn't it? This time, though, I wasn't taken to any random planet or people that needed my cleverness, it was just a quiet, peaceful, boring,_ lonely_ day. I was in the middle of a nap, and heard strange noises coming from the TARDIS' console. It was noises I don't normally hear, so I was a bit concerned. I jumped up, grabbed my coat, and leapt over to investigate. I checked all the radars, buttons, screens, and timey-wimey things, but nothing was out of the norm. I was puzzled, _very_ puzzled. Why was the TARDIS making all these loud, noisy noises? With no other ideas left, I grabbed a pair of goggles and ran down under to see if anything was wrong down there. All the wires and hoses and whatnot were perfectly fine. So what was making the mysterious sounds?

As soon as I hopped back up the stairs to the main floor, the noises suddenly stopped. My curiosity was killing me, so I had to go and investigate around the console. I slowly tip-toed around, hoping to find some gift from the TARDIS herself. _BAM!_ My face in the ground before I even knew what was happening. I looked over my shoulder to see what I'd tripped over, and almost gasped. "How in the world did you get on here?!" I yelled as I saw a skinny girl was curled up on the ground, blanketed by long, bright ginger hair. She had no clothes on whatsoever. My yell seemed to wake her up, and she roused awake with round, childish sparkly eyes. "Hello." She greeted with a soft voice. "Hello..." I replied back, still trying to figure out who she was, and how she got here. "What's your name?" "I don't have one." She blinked, and I noticed her eyes looked like _space_. Yes, I meant nebulas and dust. The lights even made it seem like there were stars gleaming in her eyes. I smiled, trying to hide my confusion away and be friendly to my new, unexpected, guest. "Well, how did you get on here? In the TARDIS, I mean." The ginger-haired girl thought for a moment, and she started to uncurl from her sleeping position. I looked away quickly before I saw anything I didn't want to, and blurted, "Let's get you some clothes first, shall we?" before she could answer.

I assumed she'd agreed and I held out my hand, covering my eyes to guide her to my vast wardrobe, which was full of clothes for any occasion. I practically dragged her behind me, and barely heard her footsteps as we trekked to our location. We turned one more corner before we arrived to the wardrobe and the door automatically opened. "Go pick something out, I'll be waiting right here." I smiled with my eyes covered and she ran in. Once the door closed, I sighed and tried to processed what happened: I woke up from a nap because I heard weird noises coming from the TARDIS; checked the console, found nothing wrong, checked underneath and came up with the same results; returned to the console area and investigated; tripped on mysterious, sleeping, ginger-haired girl; woke her up to find out who she was; took her to get some clothes on. _How did she get on board? It's nearly impossible for just anyone to appear out of nowhere._ I thought, trying to find a reasonable explanation to my predicament.

In the midst of my thoughts, the doors opened with an air pressure release and then closed back up. I glanced over and saw that my guest had dressed in an olive green jumper, which was a few sizes too big since she was so tiny, skinny jeans, and some yellow trainers. Since when did I have _yellow _trainers? That wardrobe was a different place every time I walked in, so I shouldn't be surprised. "Very nice." I complimented and she tilted her head slightly. "Let's go talk in the console room, shall we?" I escorted Mystery, as I shall call her for now, to the vast room and grabbed a chair for her. "Now tell me, how did you get here?" Mystery thought as if she were trying to phrase her sentence in a certain way. "I came from here." That took me by surprise. "_Here_? As in the TARDIS?" She nodded and I did too, slowly. "Do you remember anything special? Memories, feelings, thoughts?" "Loneliness." I was even more surprised by that. That was exactly what I was feeling long before the weird noises started. I'd been without a companion for awhile, and I didn't realize how much I really needed someone here to show off to or show the universe to. I was just roaming space, feeling empty inside, as if I was missing something.

"Da- Doctor?" Mystery stuttered, as if she were about to say something she wasn't supposed to. "Yes? Sorry, I was thinking. So you said you came from the TARDIS, right?" She nodded again, and I tried to think more. I just put a smile on my face and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Well, you said you didn't have a name?" I stood up and she blinked those intriguing eyes at me. "Yes." "Hmm..." I tried to think and think even more. The first names that came to my head were River, Amelia, and Clara. I tried to ignore those thoughts because they weren't here anymore, and I didn't want to break out in tears in front of this stranger. "Oh, Doctor, could I tell you something?" She asked with her soft voice. "Sure!" "I'm your daughter_._" _That _caught me off guard and almost stumbled for a second. I wanted to say that was impossible, but saying that to a kid is on the list of the worst things you could say. "Would you like me to explain?" Mystery offered, and I nodded. "Well, you've been desperately lonely lately, right?" I nodded again. "You haven't had a companion in what seems like an eternity, and it's been quite quiet. So, the TARDIS created me from your loneliness, I'm your daughter." She smiled and I thought about how that was possible. The TARDIS usually took me places when I was in need of something to do. I never knew it was possible for her to create a life form, let alone a humanoid one. Which made me think... "Does that mean you're Gallifreyan?" I hoped, and Mystery nodded. "Are you _sure_ you're Gallifreyan?" "Would you like to check?" I knew what she meant and leapt over to my monitor. I cued it up, and focused on Mystery. The file came up with almost everything with question marks, but she had two hearts all right.

I ran over to her and hugged her. I didn't want to let go, this was one of the first family members, or anything close to it, I'd seen in forever. The Ponds were gone, River was gone, Mystery was all I had left. "Name! Right!" I let go and paced around. "Name, name, name, name, name..." I made at least three trips around the console before a simple, but significant, name popped into my head. "Tardis! You'll be Tardis!" I picked her up and swung her around joyfully. "What if I get confused with who you're talking to?" "I'll call you just plain Tardis, and I'll call _her_ the TARDIS." I smiled and was excited for once. It'd been a long time since I've felt like this. The TARDIS had given me a gift after all; a new companion to travel with, to teach, to learn from. Tardis was more than just a companion, though, she was my _daughter_. I had to take care of her and made sure she was always okay, no matter what, and make sure she was always happy. "Do you like fish fingers and custard?" "I've never had it, but from what you've said, it sounds delish." Tardis smiled and I took her hand. "We _must_ go have some then!" We both ran out of the console room and to the kitchen. I whipped up some custard and told Tardis to heat up some fish fingers. "Ready to take your little taste buds on a flavorful journey?" I held the bowl of custard back, awaiting her response. "Yes sir!" She and I slid the food to the center of the table we were sitting at, and I let her have the first taste. "This is..." She took a moment to taste it. "Amazing!" Tardis started to practically inhale all the food, and I had to hurry before she ate the last pieces. "Fish fingers and custard is cool." I dipped my fish finger into the sweet custard and took a satisfying bite.

Whilst we were letting the food settle, I questioned Tardis. "Do you remember anything?" I simply asked, with no specifics. "I remember everything. I remember Gallifrey, I remember Susan." She started to recollect. Susan was my granddaughter, this was long ago, though. "Remember the time you almost crashed into an asteroid?" She couldn't control her laughter, but I just smirked. "That asteroid was a very rude one, I've met far more nicer asteroids than him!" We kept talking about my past adventures, then she brought up Rose. "Dad, you miss Rose, don't you?" My face dimmed down a bit, but then I put on a smile like I always did. "Of course I do. I miss everyone I've travelled with." Tardis yawned and stretched her arms. "I'm tired. I think I'm going to kip." She stood up and started to slowly walk away. "Tardis, you don't even have a bed, or a room!" I ran after her, and she wasn't even around the corner when I caught up to her. "I've got a room." "No you-" I was interrupted by Tardis walking into a brand-new room right by the doors to the console room that I'd never seen before. "I told you." She yawned and hopped into her bed, which was floating above the ground. The ceiling and walls looked like space, and was actually moving and animated, with asteroids floating around, stars, and even planets. The carpet was purple, and there were drawers for anything she wanted to put in them. Tardis was sound asleep before I could even fathom how this room got here. Then I remembered that the TARDIS had random rooms appear all the time, even _I _didn't know what was behind every single door. I switched off the lights, and leaned down to give Tardis a goodnight kiss on her forehead, then left to go to the console room and think about where to go tomorrow.


	2. The Impossible City

The next morning, or whatever time it was, Tardis woke me up from my sleep. "Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad!" She jumped up and down in excitement and I sat up with a random pain in my back, probably from sitting in that chair awkwardly. "Yeah?" I saw her space-dusted eyes and still marveled at how different they were. "Get up! We're going!" It was as if she was the parent and I was the kid, because I was still half-asleep. "Going where?" I stretched my arms and legs and stood up. "It's a surprise!" She took my hand and tried to pull me to the door but I stood my ground effortlessly. "Tardis, calm down. Where exactly are we?" I was about to let her answer, but then realized, "How do you know how to drive the TARDIS, Tardis?" "I was _born_ from the TARDIS. I know everything about it, Dad." She might as well add a "Duh" to the end of her sentence. "Never mind that, I want to know where we are." I started to walk over to the door, but Tardis tried to stop me this time. "Wait! Dad!" I felt her pull my hand and arm back, but I continued to the door, turned the doorknob, and pulled. I couldn't believe what I saw.

"Tardis," I started to look outside in awe. "It was supposed to be a surprise!" We were underwater. You could see giant fish swimming around, a coral reef was above us, and the sun was out on the surface. How was the water not flooding the TARDIS, you might ask. How do you think we don't get pushed out into space when we open the TARDIS doors while we're up there? Same concept. I stuck a finger into the water, and it was cold, probably because we were so far down, and then turned to Tardis. "Dad, I just wanted to-" "Are you kidding? This is going to be fun!" I ran back over to the center console and to the monitor to see where we were. "Ahh, Neptune. Not like the Milkyway-Neptune, but Neptune-Neptune." I babbled nonsense to her. "This planet is all... water..." I remembered. "Why did you bring us here, Tardis? There's not much we can do underwater..." I went back to the door and she had her bare feet in the wall of water. She was giggling, and then looked back at me. "There's people here." I shook my head. "If you mean humans, there's no possible way they could be here." It was her turn to shake her head this time. "I'll show you."

She returned to her feet and closed the door, then ran over to the console. "Tardis," "Let me show you." She seemed desperate to just impress me, or prove me wrong, or both. I smiled and nodded then sat down in my chair. The TARDIS started to make her noise and I could feel us moving through the water. Tardis ran around, flying my ship with ease, and I crossed my arms. This mysterious girl had appeared in my TARDIS last night and now we were already going on adventures. This was going to be very fun, I could just tell.

"Come on!" Tardis ran over and grabbed my hand. "The people are here!" I followed her to the door, and when she opened it, there wasn't a wall of water, there was a city. This was impossible, no human could be here, not on this planet. It was all water, there was no land, and they had no oxygen to breathe from. Before I could even ask, Tardis dragged me out and I locked the door before she ran off by herself. "I told you! Look! People!" She was right. There were many people walking the streets of this underwater city with regular people clothes. I pulled my sonic screwdriver out from my jacket and scanned all around me. Just like Tardis said, my screwdriver confirmed that they were humans. "There's people on Neptune... There's people on Neptune!" I exclaimed and Tardis smiled at me. "Look." She pointed to the sky, or its equivalent, and I noticed a large dome was surrounding the city. It wasn't some solid glass dome, but some sort of energy field. "Let's go investigate!" I ran off and Tardis pelted after me.

We bumped into people more times than we could count, and almost angered one enough to threaten us with a call to the authorities. When we escaped that person, Tardis and I had to stop and laugh. "That woman was crazy!" She fell over and couldn't stop. I imitated her: "If you don't apologize, I'll call the Justices! Rah rah rah!" I growled and laughed with Tardis. "How are people living on this planet, though?" I wondered and she grabbed my hand. "Let's go find the library!" "Sounds like a great idea, but I'm supposed to be the clever one." I joked. "I'm clever too, you know!" We walked the streets looking at the many stores on the way. A hat shop caught my eye and we looked at each other at the same time, a smile on both of our faces. We ran in and started to pull hats off the shelves; there were Stetsons, fezzes, knit hats, top hats, umbrella hats, and all types of hats possible. "Dad!" The first hat Tardis grabbed was a blue fez, and I jumped to get one for myself. It was a red one, just like the one River shot off my head long ago. "Tardis, can we get it? Can we get it?" I begged and she grabbed a knit hat for herself. "Is this enough?" I asked the cashier with a wad of cash in my hands. "What is this?" They asked and examined the paper money. "Do you know what I could get for these?" The cashier looked up and I shrugged. "No, not really." "You could take the hats, and more if you wanted to!" Tardis and I glanced at each other and shrugged. We grabbed about two more hats, she got the blue fez and I got a Stetson, then strolled out of the store satisfied. "What was that all about?" I wondered out loud. "I don't think they use paper money here..." Tardis shrugged and we walked on.

"Where's this library, anyways?" I asked looking around at all the people buying things from the stores or walking the sidewalk. "The signs say it's just straight down this road." Tardis pointed out and I saw the signs pointing down the street. "Follow the signs, then." We noticed that almost everyone we passed was staring at us strangely. They could tell we were outsiders, but didn't want to say anything about it. "I wonder, what are the 'Justices?'" Tardis asked. "Seems like their law officers of sorts. Like policemen." I guessed, and we eventually made it to the library. "Ahh, here we are. I'm guessing we need to go to the history books." I tried to open the door, but it was locked. It looked only noon, so there'd be no reason for it to be locked. "Dad," Tardis pointed to a sign that read:

_Authorized personnel only. All violators will be subjected to arrest and punishment by the Justices. _

"Hmm..." I thought and next to the door was a keypad and a handprint scanner. "Looks like we'll just have to knock." I smiled and then did so, waiting for someone or something to answer. "Who dares to intrude on the Library of Neptune?" A voice boomed from some unknown speakers. "Well, I'm the Doctor, and this is my daughter, Tardis." She tugged on my sleeve and pointed to a camera behind us, then we both waved. "What is it that you want?" The voice growled impatiently. "Um, we were wondering if we could go read some books of yours?" "That's preposterous! No one can _read_ anymore! Only the scholars and government officials can!" The voice sounded very surprised, but was shaking us off as idiots. "Well, if you really want to argue with me, I could just march back to my boss and tell him you didn't admit a government worker into your, _our_, library." I shrugged and turned to walk off. "Wait! You didn't say you came from the Sapphire Nation." He seemed afraid. "I have credentials if you don't believe me." I added for assurance. After a long pause, the voice finally answered. "Fine, come in. Come in." The door opened and I grabbed Tardis' hand. "You really do like to show off your cleverness." She chuckled and the doors slid to a close behind us.

As the last sliver of light disappeared, Tardis stayed close to me, seeing that it was pitch black in the room. The lights came on with a loud noise, and it echoed through the large room we were in. A man was hunched over a piece of equipment, and didn't notice us until Tardis cleared her throat. "Hm? Oh! It's you! Welcome, welcome!" He put his tools down and rested his goggles around his neck, then took a glove off to shake my hand. "Felman Lux, at your service! Sorry about my grumpy boss. You're the Doctor, correct?" I shook his hand unwillingly and then waved a greeting when he let go. "I'm the Doctor, and this is my daughter," "Tardis." Felman interrupted and stared at her, intrigued by her eyes most likely. "We were just wanting to look up some history books." I whipped out my psychic paper and he nodded, barely looking at it. "Okay, this way, then." He put his gloves down by his machine, then guided us. "We're expanding the library, you know." He informed proudly. I gazed around, and felt that I'd been here before. "Did you know that the oceans on the whole planet are drying up at alarmingly fast rates? I'm sure you did, you work for the Sapphire Nation." He babbled on and on, and I rasied a brow curiously. "But the water's well above the dome of this city." I argued. "The dome makes it look like it's farther away, as to not scare the citizens, but it's actually only a few feet above the tip of the dome. Soon we'll have enough to expand the library even more." I was a bit suspicious about him worrying so much about the library instead of the people.

"Here's the non-fiction section, more specifically, the history of the city." Felman gestured with his arm and then offered his help if we had any questions. "Thank you." I nodded and Felman strolled off back to his machine. "Let's get diggin'." I let Tardis go and find any significant books and I searched on the other end of the bookshelves. It seemed like hours before Tardis found something interesting. "Dad!" I was more than glad to hop over and see what she found. "It's actually blueprints of the city, when it was originally made." She unrolled them, and sure enough, there was a layout of the whole city. "How about the dome?" She smiled. "I thought you'd say that, it's right over here." She picked up another roll of blueprint, and laid it out, weighing the corners down by books. I looked it over at least ten times before finding how it worked oxygen into it. "It takes oxygen out of the water, leaving the hydrogen to go to the surface. That's why the water levels are falling so fast." I explained, and felt clever as always. "If they keep taking this oxygen, there'll be no oxygen for them when they build the city on the surface." Tardis added. "That answers our question. Now why don't they let the public into the library?" We both looked back towards the direction where Felman was working on his machine. "Why doesn't anyone know how to read?" Tardis asked out loud. "Let's go find out."

We put the blueprints and books back on the shelves where we found them, then returned to Felman. "Felman, why is it that no one else can read except for scholars and people like me?" Felman almost dropped his tools when he heard my voice, and then sighed while taking his goggles off. "It's because the Sapphire Nation passed a law, that only scholars could learn to read, and that it was forbidden to teach it in schools, of course." "Right, I just wanted to know if you knew. We do need people who know their stuff, don't we?" I smiled at him and nudged Tardis to come with me to the door. "It was nice meeting you, Felman. Hope your work turns out great." I waved and let Tardis and I out the door.

"He's a strange fella, isn't he?" I smirked at Tardis. "What are you talking about? _You're _the strange one, Dad." She giggled. "I'm the clever one, thank you very much." We talked more until we came across something going on in the road up ahead. People were crowding and I wanted to see what was happening. "Please! My family's starving and I need this for them to live another day!" A voice cried in desperation. That was my cue. I pushed through the crowd and made it to the center of attention. A man was on the ground with a loaf of bread and some drink in a bottle. He was covered in raggedy, old, and dirty clothing, and had the same look about him. Dirt was all over his face, arms, and legs, except for the tears streaming down his cheeks. _"You have broken Law 5679.2: A theft of any degree will result in imprisonment and fines will be paid for stolen items. You, Harrison Normandy, will execute these consequences immediately." _A robot's voice sounded with no emotion at all. "Please! I need this for my family! I have no job, no money! Please!" The robot was about to shoot him, which contradicted what he said about imprisonment and such.

I made it into the eye of the crowd and simply called out, "Now, you just said that he was to be imprisoned, not shot at." I took my sonic screwdriver out of my pocket, ready to fry this robot's circuits clean. _"By Law 7892.6, you shall be punished with the equivalent punishment for interfering with Justice law enforcement." _It was ready to shoot it's gun at me, but I was faster. I pushed the button on my screwdriver and almost instantly the robot sparked and powered down. Luckily it was only temporarily disabled, so I'd have to get out of here soon. I held out a hand to the man on the ground and helped him up. "Thank you, sir." He thanked me and shook my hands. I smiled and let him go with his food. I heard many people in the crowd whispering things like, "He went against a Justice!" or "Mum, can _we _do that?" Tardis struggled to get through the crowd, but made it to me safely. "Dad, can we go before more of them come?" I nodded and we ran to the TARDIS, where we could hide until we decided what our next course of action was.


	3. The Hidden Library

Tardis and I rested for awhile, I was thinking mostly, but Tardis was messing with the console and controls. She pulled a lever and my chair flew forward, flinging me off onto my face. "Sorry, Dad." She looked embarrassed, but I laughed. "It actually helped me think. Why is the library closed to the public? Why can't anyone read? Who controls the Justices? Why do apples and beans exist? Why can't it rain custard?" Tardis giggled and hopped down stairs. "First thing's first, but not in that order, we'll go to the police station." I thought out loud after my quick break, but Tardis was too busy working on the console down below to hear me, so I had peeked my head over the ledge. Tardis was sitting on a makeshift swing made from the hoses and wires with a pair of goggles and some tools. The sparks coming from the wires and the tool she had lit up her face, and it reminded me of someone. She reminded me of me, minus the ginger hair, of course.

I made my way to the stairs and joined her. "Tardis," She looked up from her work through the huge goggles she had on. "Yeah?" "I'm going to the police station, do you want to join me?" Usually I made my companions come with me, but Tardis looked really occupied with her work, whatever she was doing. "You can go without me this time." She got distracted with her work again. "What are you working on?" I peeked over her shoulder. "It's a surprise, no looky!" She pushed me away and I ruffled her ginger hair before walking back upstairs to grab my jacket. Then I noticed the hats that we bought on the floor by the chair and picked up the red fez to put on. "I miss my fez." I muttered and exited to the outside world.

While walking down the street with my hands in my pockets, I noticed that the streets were empty, and no one was to be found. "Strange..." I muttered, and heard doors and windows shutting suddenly whenever I passed by. There would be a person every once and awhile that would glare at me, or hide away, or stare at me with worried eyes. I started to pick up the pace, and almost tripped over my own feet a couple times. I abruptly stopped, almost tumbling over, and heard mechanical footsteps, that of a robot, or many. I looked down the street and knew they were coming from the direction I was walking. A door squeaked behind me and I glanced to see why. A woman was hiding behind the door, only showing her face, and was gesturing me to go to her with haste. I ran over to the door and she let me in, locking it behind her. "What is wrong with you? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Was the first thing she snapped at me, as if I were a child. She had frizzy black hair with silver hairs starting to grow; slightly sunken and dark eyes, as if she hadn't slept in quite a while; pale, but dirty skin; and a bony stature. "Why isn't anyone out in the streets? Oh, thank you, by the way." I nodded to her and she led me to the old and stained couch in front of a dusty telly. "It's called Silence. Every day at noon, everyone is to be indoors and has to watch the daily broadcast." "How do they know if you're not watching the telly?" "They monitor if it's turned on or not, but luckily they don't actually check if you're watching it. So most of us just turn it on and go about our business." I thought this over, and watched the broadcast. "It's the same one, everyday." The woman added. I sat down on the couch and paid attention to everything in the broadcast. It was a classic propaganda-like video, explaining the rules and justifying the Justices. According to the video, the Justices were for the protection of the people from corruption and purged the world of lawbreakers. "This is ridiculous." "Says the one wearing a fez." I smiled and then saw that the broadcast looped back to the beginning. "Silence ends at 1:00, so I still got quite a bit of time." I muttered, and stood up. "Do you have any books?" The woman's eyes widened, hoping I was joking. Then she jumped to the window, peeked outside, and ran back to me. "Follow me." She tugged the sleeve of my jacket and I did so.

In her kitchen, there was a large grille of a vent, and she popped it off as if it were nothing. She crawled in and I wondered if she wanted me to follow or not. "Come on now!" I scrambled to get on my knees and then crawled in. It was much larger inside than it seemed, and reminded me of the TARDIS, which reminded me of Tardis, which made me worry if she was fine on her own. "This way." She called softly and then disappeared around the corner. I caught up to her, and when I turned the corner, she wasn't there. "Down here!" I didn't notice it, but there was a hole with a missing panel from the vent put to the side and the top of the ladder that lead down. I climbed down, and was amazed to see what I found. It was a vast room of stone that was obviously dug by hand and not by a professional. It was an underground cave with stacks of books. "Amazing." It was more amazing than the library. This was obviously kept hidden, but why? "Why do you have to hide all these wonderful books?" She sat down on the stone floor and I joined her. "When I was much younger than today, the Sapphire Nation was just gaining more power than it had before. One of the first acts of the Prime Minister was to limit the education at the schools. First they cut the sciences, then the mathematics, but only taught history. English and literature, however, were the last to go. The Nation _despised_ literature, claiming that it poisoned the minds of people and caused them to work less for their city. Though the children were overjoyed, they didn't realize what this meant for the rest of us. Shortly after that, the Prime Minister called for the confiscation of the books of all types. I kept mine hidden for a long time, but I needed somewhere to put them. One of my children found this small cave, and we expanded it, taking books from neighbors so they wouldn't get imprisoned or executed for it." Her story was so mesmerizing, but it didn't make sense to me.

"Why take all the books away, though?" I asked out loud, but it was meant for my head. "I've come to think it was because they wanted to keep it to themselves. All this information could be used against them, 'make' us think rebellious thoughts, 'make' us believe in change." She suggested. "That's clever! Ohh, very clever." It all started to flood my mind, and I jumped up to my feet. I pulled the woman up to her feet and started to jump around with her, like Ring Around the Rosie. "It's clever, but they didn't expect _me_ to come." I stopped and kissed her on the forehead. "Thank you so much!" I ran off to the ladder, crawled to the kitchen and went to the door. It was 1:00 sharp, and I needed to go stop this monstrosity of a government once and for all. "Wait! I never got your name!" The woman had surprising speed, but I turned and answered, "I'm the Doctor," then ran. I didn't know where I was going, so I needed to get a map; from the library of course. Ooh, my plan for them was brilliant. I was ready to take down the government.

* * *

With all my wit and cleverness, I defeated the unjust system in only five minutes. I strolled into the middle of some meeting they had regularly with the Prime Minister and introduced myself. "Hello, I'm the Doctor and you're going to listen." I explained their options. They knew that the water would run out and all they'd have left is a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, so I gave them a couple options: A)Just keep taking oxygen from the water, to end up with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and not heed my words or B)Reinstate the education for everyone, even adults and use actual people for law officers instead of robots to better the relationships between the people. I left to go and see Tardis and let them debate, but I knew which option they were going to take. I was very excited to go show off to Tardis what I'd done, and to just see her. It seemed like forever since I'd seen her, but it was just a couple of hours, or so it seemed.

I entered the TARDIS and threw my fez on the console, yelling, "I'm home!" to Tardis. "Dad?" Tardis ran out from her room and jumped up to hug me. I caught her, a bit surprised by her odd greeting. "What's wrong?" "What's wrong? You've been gone for days, Dad. Days! I was worried to go out there by myself, so I just sat and waited for you to come back like you always did. But you never came and I laid in my bed forever, only getting up to get food, even that rarely happened." I was utterly confused for once. "I was only out there for a couple hours, Tardis." "You were gone for almost a week!" I put her down and noticed she was crying. "Shh shh shh. It's alright, Tardis. I'm here now." "I thought you were gone for good this time!" I realized that whatever Tardis experienced didn't happen outside, so I just held the hug she gave me until she was done crying. "I won't ever leave you alone ever again." I promised then pulled away to look at her face. "Let's go somewhere fun next, shall we?" She nodded and I hopped to the console, already having a place in mind, and then held on tight for the bumpy ride. "Geronimo!" I yelled and felt us speed away from the mysterious Neptune.

* * *

**Sorry for shortness, I'll try to do better on the next one! :)**


	4. Stop Running

Ever since Tardis said that I was gone for days, I've been down below trying to see if there was anything wrong, but I found many things that were moved around. "Tardis, what were you doing down here?" I was about to mess with the hoses, but Tardis yelled, "No! Don't touch it!' and ran down to me. "But what did you do?" She looked down guiltily and messed with her jumper nervously. "I wanted to keep it a surprise, but I guess I'll show you now..." She pulled my hand and I dropped all my tools to follow her upstairs. "Okay, ready?" I looked down and there was a button that I didn't recognize. "How long has that button been there?" "Ever since you got the TARDIS..." She answered. "Are you sure it's always been there?" "Yup." I waited for her to push it, and when she did, nothing happened. "Tardis, what's supposed to happen?" She tapped my shoulder and pointed down to our feet. The ground was at least five feet away from our toes and I laughed. "Ha ha! Tardis, this is wonderful!" Soon enough I felt my head tap the ceiling, and I pushed off. "How did you do this?" She was too busy admiring her work to answer, but finally explained. "I took the gravity system and tweaked it. If I turned it off, it'd just be what the gravity is outside. The modification makes it so the gravity's weaker in here." I marveled at the fact that we were floating as if we were in space. "It's brilliant! You're clever, just like your dad!" I praised and she smiled. Her ginger hair floated upwards and she stared around with pride in her work. "I would've done this years ago if I'd thought of it." I playfully pushed Tardis and she helplessly floated backwards towards the wall. She frowned and used her feet to push herself off the wall towards me. "Two can play at that game!" She cried and tried to grab me.

I looked up and saw a metal beam then pulled myself up before she could get to me. "Ha! You'll have to do better than that! I'm the Doctor." Then I felt her grab my ankle. "How did-?" "I'm quick." She interrupted and we laughed. "We have to do this more often!" I exclaimed and pushed myself down to the console and set the gravity back to normal. I regretted the decision right as my feet touched the ground, because I could hear Tardis squealing as she fell to the ground. I quickly jumped to the spot she'd land and Tardis landed in my arms with a little thump. "That was an adventure." She sighed and I set her down to her feet. "It was, wasn't it? Ready for another?" I ran off before she could answer and she followed me. "Where to, Tardis?" I leaned on the console, only to accidentally pull a lever on the console, and jolted back. Tardis fell onto the console, most likely pushing buttons of all sorts, and we started to travel through the Vortex. I had no idea what was going on, but I simply smiled to Tardis across the console and she smiled back behind a curtain of red hair. "Geronimo!" She yelled and I was surprised that she said it before me. "Geronimo!" I yelled after her and the TARDIS suddenly stopped, sending me flying backwards and Tardis fell right on her face.

"That was a fairly quick trip. Wonder where we are? Not that it matters, surprises are the best." I fixed my bow tie and some of my hair and ran over to help Tardis up. "Come along, Pon-!" I stopped myself before I could finish. Pond wasn't here anymore, why was I calling her Pond? Well, she _did _ have red hair and was very adventurous and... "Dad?" Tardis broke my daze and I put on a smile to hide what I was thinking. "Let's go! We have to do some discovering!" I pulled her up and she didn't take another step. "What' s wrong?" "I've got a bad feeling about this." She muttered hesitantly and refused to move. "It won't be bad, trust me." She reluctantly followed me out the door.

As soon as we were out, I could just tell it was going to be a nice time. There were hills all over the place, filled with flowers of every type and color. The sun was up and the blue sky had clouds floating by slowly. "What is this place, Dad?" Tardis spun around slowly, taking in the sweet clean air. "I'm not entirely sure, I've never seen a place like this before..." I kneeled down and picked a flower. "Where would you like to start?" Tardis woke out of her trance and pointed to the horizon. "That hill!" I followed where she was pointing and almost grumbled. It was the _tallest _ hill out of all lf them. "Let's go, then!" I exclaimed while locking the TARDIS doors and we strolled to the hill.

It seemed like forever before we reached the crest of it, but when we were finally there it seemed like we could see the whole landscape. This hill seemed higher than I percieved... "Whoah! You can see _everything _from up here! Tardis scanned the land below us, marveling at the colors and pointed out a meadow below us. "I wanna go there next!" She grinned ecstatically. I looked down, and stood back quickly because I felt some wind coming. "Come on, Dad!" Tardis grasped my hand and pulled me behind her. Soon enough, we were at the bottom of the hill, much faster than on the way up.

"It's so beautiful!" Tardis crawled into the meadow of flowers and laid on her back to stare at the sky. I joined her and put my hands behind my head. "Why is the sky blue?" She broke the long silence. I knew she knew the answer, but I replied, "Because whenever someone is feeling down, their thoughts, their emotions, fly to the sky. The clouds are their dreams, floating around, getting no attention unless they are big. The clouds weep for the sad ones, the discouraged, the lonely..." I paused for a moment and went on. "The clouds, you see, are trying to get attention, but can only do so by weeping because that's all the people feel." Tardis rested her head on my stomach and picked at some flowers and grass aimlessly. "What's it like in the TARDIS when I'm asleep?" "Quiet, lonely..." I admitted and Tardis plucked a flower out of the ground and stuffed it in my coat pocket. "

It's a poppy." She explained. We ended up talking about my days in the TARDIS.

900+ years is a lot to talk about, but she kept asking about all my companions. "What about Sarah Jane?" "Oh, Sarah Jane Smith! We've been through thick and thin. She's brilliant!" I ranted about how amazing she was and about our many adventures. Tardis interrupted my ranting with, "What about Rose?" I stopped immediately. "Rose... She was something, I'll say that. No matter how many times we got separated, she always found a way back to me. I taught her many things about the universe, and Rose taught me a lot about me." I smiled up at the clouds. "Im bored. Let's do something fun." I sat up and Tardis grumbled.

"The forest!" She exclaimed while pointing. I tilted my head, confused because I had not noticed it before. "To the forest it is!" I nodded and she unexpectedly bolted away. "Race ya!" She called while scrambling to her feet. I

caught up with her quickly and passed her. "You can eat my shadow, Tardis!" "It's 'eat my dust,' Dad!" Tardis corrected and I was about to come back with something clever, but I was stopped abruptly and ended up on my back on the floor. "That... hurt..." I sat up and rubbed my head. "Why are you sitting on the-" "Tardis, wait!" I jumped up and tackled her from the side. "What was that for?" She complained and I sighed, still winded from when I hit the invisible force. "I think it's a force field."

I whipped out my trusty sonic screwdriver and soniced it. "Mhm, just as I thought." I hid my sonic screwdriver back in my coat and shot up to my feet. "Why is there a force field in the middle of nowhere? Someone's hiding something and we're going to figure out what." I poked at the invisible force and felt a tiny shock and noticed that the area in front of me wiggled like jam. "There's no way we're getting past this by standing around doing nothing. Come along." I walked off and Tardis tagged along. "If this is a force field, then there's gotta bean end to it somewhere." I explained as I kept reaching out to my right every once and awhile to check if it was still there.

We walked for what seemed like forever, and I finally gave up. "This is taking too long. Maybe it's not a force field, it could be something else..." I reached inside my coat pocket for my sonic screwdriver and scanned the wall in front of me. "It's not made out of your usual force field material, and it's practically impenetrable." I poked it with my finger once more and turned back towards Tardis. She was gone. "Tardis? " I ran beside the force field frantically. There was nowhere she could disappear to, it was open field behind us. "Tardis!" I ran my hands through my hair nervously and ran towards the TARDIS. When I ran to the top of a hill I could see the blue paint of my ship, and started to stumble down in haste. I managed to get back up and made it to the doors, unlocked them, and ran inside. "Tardis! Tardis, are you here?" My voice echoed throughout the empty room with no reply.

"It's a shame this happens every time."

I looked up and jumped over to the owner of the voice with livid eyes. "You! Where is she? I don't want to play games with you!" I tried to grab him by his jacket but he'd disappeared with shocking speed. "Your 'daughter' is safe and sound, Doctor. Like you always promise them, but that's never the truth, is it?" The Dream Lord raised a brow with his arms crossed. "How did you get back here? I cleaned out all the pollen long ago." I ignored his remark and clenched my fists so tight that my fingernails dug into my palms. "Pollen travels, Doctor. You know this." The Dream Lord put his hands in his pockets and paced. "Just wake me and Tardis up, or I'll-" "What? You're in _my _world now." He snapped his fingers and a screen appeared in front of me.

Tardis was sleeping soundly in her room with no other disturbances. "See, she's perfectly fine!" I sighed, but scowled at the Dream Lord once more. "There's no point of you bothering me, so wake me up." I ordered impatiently and he just shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I can't do that, Doctor. We've got loads to talk about." "You are in my brain, my subconscious, you know everything." The Dream Lord nodded. "True, but you don't." I frowned in confusion, and started to pace also. "I have come to teach you a lesson about yourself. Make you realize something you've been running from for awhile now." The Dream Lord took humor in my confusion and grinned. "Good luck." He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS was gone with the blink of an eye.

* * *

When I was conscious of my surroundings, I realized I was outside the building I hadn't been to in years. "No..." I made my way to the doors and upstairs. As if by muscle memory, my legs took me to a door and I knocked reluctantly. "I've got it, Mum!" The voice of a young woman was muffled by the door and when it opened, I was expecting her not to recognize me. When she saw me, she couldn't speak. Her mouth was open in awe at the sight of me and then her mum appeared. "Rose, dear, who's at the-" The older woman stopped and covered her hands with her mouth. "Hello! You probably don't recognize me, but I'm the-" "Doctor!" Rose tackled me with a big hug and didn't let go.

"I can't believe you've got the nerve to show your face here! You left my daughter with hopes and dreams! And, worse of all, a broken heart!" Jackie yelled and smacked me once Rose let go. "You never called or left any messages, I thought I'd never see you again!" Rose's voice changed from happy to angry within a second. "I'm really sorry-" "And then you left me in another dimension with a copy of you! You couldn't stay, you just had to leave!" I looked down with guilt. "I didn't want to hurt either of us with the burden of me not aging while you did. I didn't want to watch you die." I tried hard to keep it together, but it was very difficult. "I don't care if I die! I'd rather die with you than live without you!" She started to cry and ran off. "Look at what you've done to my daughter. Are you happy?" Jackie slammed the door and the scene melted away slowly, restructuring to an unfamiliar house.

It was a perfect white house complete with the white picket fence; a garden with bushes framing the house and flowers along the pathway up to the front door; a tree with a tire swing and home-made tree house. Everything. I sauntered to the door and knocked. While waiting, I thought about the Dream Lord. He was messing with me, playing with my emotions. I wasn't going to let him win this time. I was going to be strong. I was going to be clever. I was going to win again. Thinking this, I stood with my head held up, and adjusted my bowtie with confidence. "Hello?" The woman's voice belonged to another friend of mine. "Hello, Martha! Marha Jones!" I put my hands on the sides of her shoulders and she smiled widely. "Doctor! It's Martha Smith-Jones now!" My eyes widened. "You got married?" She nodded and then as if on cue, Mickey Smith came from behind her. "Doctor? Is that you? " I nodded with a smile. "How have you been?" "Well, besides the fact that you never loved me back the way I loved you and was given the life outside the TARDIS, fine." I was not expecting such a blunt answer. "Ever since Rose left me for a 900 year old alien and is now stuck in another dimension, I've been great." My hearts were just slowly being beat up by their answers. "Doctor, you ruined us, even though we made it out safely, we're still ruined." I took a step back and they were scowling at me. "I didn't mean- But-" For once I was at a loss for words. "Just leave, like you always do." Martha spat and I turned away to the empty street.

I dragged my feet behind me down the street, not looking up to see where I was going. My head hit something abruptly and I glanced up to see what I hit. Yet again, another door to a house. This one I knew very well though. "Hello? " The red-headed woman opened the door. "Hello, mister?" My head just refuse to look up at another angry and disappointed face. "Oi, mister! What are ya doin' here?" Donna finally rose her voice and I rose my head. "Wrong house, sorry..." She closed the door and left me there to think. _What have I done to all these people? My friends, my family..._

"Who are you?" A little girl's voice rang in my ears and I forced my head up to gaze at her young face. "The Doctor. I'm the Doctor." I remember our first meeting like it was yesterday. "Apples are rubbish!" I scrunched up my face at the cursed fruit. Finally we got my treat. "Fish fingers and custard." I snacked on it slowly and when I was finished, Amelia Pond stared at me curiously. Soon enough I was leaving the house, and when I turned to look back, Amelia Pond was waiting patiently on her packed suitcase with her red rainboots and matching hat and mittens. With a sigh, I wandered off and took one last glance at Pond. She was grown up and sitting on a rock with Rory. This made me sprint back to her. "Pond!" I weakly called out and she turned to me. "If the angel touches me, it'll send me back to him, right?" "Pond, just come back to the TARDIS, okay?" "Goodbye raggedy man." The Angel had appeared behind her and she disappeared with a flash.

"NO!" I cried and fell to my knees and cried. All of my companions were gone, whether they died or lost their memory, they were gone. All because of me. With all the worlds and people I've saved, I couldn't save those close to me. The ones I loved were living unusual lives because of me, or were doing my job for me back on Earth.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" The Dream Lord's voice came from nowhere and I shot up to my feet. "Come out you coward!" I yelled to the empty space in front of me. "Remember, Doctor, I'm your subconscious. If I'm the coward, that makes you one too." "Shut up! Just wake me up! WAKE ME UP!" I yelled once more and the Dream Lord appeared in front of me. "Stop running, Doctor. You get those you love hurt..." He touched my forehead with two fingers and I fell back in slow motion. The words "stop running" kept echoing in my head before I hit the ground and woke up.


	5. Rome's Angels

From then on I kept a close eye on Tardis. Wherever we went she was never out of my sight, and she started to notice it. "Dad, are you okay?" She asked me one day while we were strolling the beaches of a planet full of tropical islands. "Me? Fine! I'm the king of fine, and how about you?" She shrugged. "I'm okay." "What's wrong?" She just looked down at the sand. "Something about you has been different lately." Tardis stopped and stopped me. "Different how?" "You used to be fun and spontaneous. Now you never let me walk two feet away from you, barely let me leave the TARDIS, you don't even let me walk around the TARDIS by myself." I sighed. She was noticing me being protective of her, I had to tell her what happened eventually. I just hoped it wouldn't be now. "I had a visit from. an old friend a long time ago: The Dream Lord. I don't know how the pollen got in the TARDIS, but he visited me in a dream and showed me all my previous companions. They blamed me for everything. All that I'd done to them was my fault. Rose being stuck without me, Donna's memory loss, Pond's death, Clara..." I trailed off and Tardis grabbed my hand reassuringly. "It's not your fault, don't blame yourself. You don't need to worry about me, Dad." "Yes I do, it's my job." She shook her head with a little chuckle. "I'm different, Dad. Watch."

Her grip loosened and her hand slipped out of mine. I glanced over and she had her eyes shut tightly and hands clenched into fists at her side. I didn't know what to expect, but I heard the familiar noise of the TARDIS materializing close to us. I turned around and soon enough the TARDIS had landed behind me. "How did you do that?" I paced around the blue box, much like my companions did when they first saw that it was bigger on the inside, and wondered how it appeared here. "I've been practicing." She snapped her fingers and the doors swung open. "I used to only be able to open and close the doors, now I can _move_ it." She puffed out her chest in pride and I clapped. "This is wonderful! You really are a brilliant girl, Tardis. Very special indeed." I tapped the tip of her nose and she smiled. "You don't have to worry about me, Dad. I can take care of myself. I can take care of you too." She hugged me and I stared at the ocean. "Let's go somewhere fun then?" I asked and Tardis nodded. Once we were inside, I shut the doors and Tardis ran to her room to get changed. I searched the TARDIS' computer for anything fun we could do, but it suddenly started itself. I thought Tardis had done it, but she yelled, "Why are we moving? I thought you'd wait for me!" I knew for sure we were in for a wild adventure at that point.

* * *

We found ourselves at the height of the Roman Empire. It was about noon and the streets were filled with vendors selling things from jewelry to fish. "Oh! A fish! We should have fish fingers and custard for dessert tonight." I suggested and Tardis nodded in agreement. "Would you like to change? When in Rome, wear what the Romans wear." "It's 'when in Rome, do what the Romans do,' Dad." She corrected, but ran back inside to go change into more "time-appropriate" clothes while I leaned on the TARDIS while staring around the street impatiently. I couldn't stand still for too long, but I couldn't leave Tardis alone. "Done!" She ran out with a totally new look. Not only had she changed clothes, but she also did something with her hair: it was curled and had some pieces pinned back out of her face. "How did you do that in a few minutes?" I wondered and tilted my head. "I was in there for an hour or two, Dad." I frowned for just a fraction of a second but smiled. "You look lovely. Where do you want to start?" Tardis dragged me behind her and we looked at all the vendor's stands. She ended up convincing me to get her a necklace with an aquamarine and asked me to put it on her immediately. "It's so pretty! I love it." She exclaimed and some bells rang in the distance.

The vendors started to pack up at an alarming speed, and soon the streets were practically empty within minutes, and I tugged on Tardis' arm. We followed the mass of people up the road towards a large building that looked much like a church. "A church? This is ancient Rome, they worshipped gods." I frowned in confusion and kept up with the crowd. It seemed that everyone was required to go to this church when the bells rang. I decided to ask a fellow civilian what was going on. "Excuse me, I'm a stranger from not around here, what's going on?" The man next to me stared at me strangely, but explained, "It's Wednesday, The Day of the Angels. We must go to the church and take an hour's worth of prayer." It was blunt, but I nodded and continued to go with the crowd. The church was gigantic. Much like a football stadium, really, but the stained glass and statues seemed so out of place. Everyone entered through large wooden doors held open by priests in red robes and reflective masks. "Strange..." I muttered, and one turned his, or her, head to me as we passed. "Stay close, Tardis." I pulled on her hand and the hall opened up to a vast room with many seats. I looked up and a large golden chandelier with cherubs was hanging high above us. The crowd branched off into three different directions: straight, left and right. There must've been another floor because the only room was in front of us. I kept Tardis close, just in case she got pulled off into the other direction, and was relieved when we made it into the main room. Seats lined the edges and left a center aisle open for people to walk. I took the seat closest to the door, just in case, and Tardis sat next to me. "Wonder why this church is so big? Does it hold everyone in the city?" Tardis looked around at all the people and I sat with my legs crossed waiting for the sermon to begin.

All the seats were finally filled after what seemed like forever, and three priests appeared: two in red and one in white. "Welcome, my children. The Day of the Angels has come once again. It is that time of the week again, and now we must pray." I stopped paying attention after that, and started to think about why the TARDIS brought us here. Well, for one thing, there's an over-sized church in the middle of a Roman city. The Romans worshipped a pantheon of gods, so they didn't need churches. They had temples specifically for a certain god, especially if it was a family patron. I'd expect for there to be many temples rather than just one central church. Also, the priests were very strange indeed. It seemed that the one in the white robes had the highest authority, and the ones in red were just there, compared to the one in white. Everyone had their heads bowed down and were repeating what the priest in white was preaching. I couldn't handle the waiting, how could humans just live like this? It was just tedious and boring. "Now for the Choosing." I perked my head up in curiosity. People in the audience got restless. "Those of you who do not wish to watch this can leave now, but must get their beads checked." I stayed put, but Tardis tugged on my sleeve. "I don't know why, but I've got a bad feeling. Can we go?" I looked from Tardis back to the priests a couple times, but stood up. We followed the line of people to the doors, and saw a commotion up ahead. "Let me go! My beads are bewitched! I can tell you who did it too!" I pushed through the crowd, holding Tardis' hand tightly, and got close enough to see what was going on.

Two red-robed priests had a man gripped tightly by the arms and forced him to his knees. "Wait a minute!" I called and the priests looked up at me behind their mirrored masks. "Why can't he leave?" Their answer was silence at first, but they replied with, "He is Chosen. He can't leave." "Chosen?" The priests held up some red beads that were hidden from view. "Who are you, stranger?" The priest on the left asked while restraining their prisoner. I pulled out my psychic paper and introduced myself. "I'm the Doctor, and this is Tardis." My daughter waved from behind me. "The Doctor?" It sounded as if they knew me, or heard of me. They took the man with the red beads back towards the altar and a few other priests appeared next to us. "We've been expecting you, Doctor, Tardis." They bowed unexpectedly and announced. "Citizens! This is the Doctor and Tardis!" Everyone gasped and I smiled while looking around confused. "Does everybody here know me?" "You are the protector, Doctor."

With that, the priests pushed me and Tardis towards the doors, and so the rest of the people in the church got up from their seats and followed us. "I wonder where we're going?" I asked Tardis with a grin and she grabbed my hand. "I've still got a bad feeling, Dad." Her voice sounded full of worry, but I held her hand tighter. "We'll be fine." The crowd pushed us along the streets, and I noticed that we were getting closer to a huge white building on a hill. We trekked up the stairs and finally reached the top.

"Theosis! The Doctor is here! He's really here!" A priest shouted. Silence followed until the doors from a porch above opened. "You've told me that every time, but it was never him." A man sighed and opened his eyes. He was speechless. "Is it truly him?" I waved and the man above started to take deep breaths and invited us in. "Come! We were just getting supper ready." I looked at the sky and saw that the sun was setting. "Just the Doctor! Thank you for bringing him to me." The man waved the crowd goodbye and retreated inside after calling down to me and Tardjs, "Come in! I shall meet you inside." We scaled the white marble stairs and entered the home of our mystery host.

Inside there were many paintings and statues of angels. It was the same at the church; angel statues were perched outside with lifeless eyes. "Doctor! It's such a great honor to meet you! Nobody had expected you to show yoursf here!" He took my hand and bowed his head. "Really? Well, Theosis, I'm very flattered." He let go and looked over at my daughter. "And this is Tardis." I introduced and she stayed hidden behind me. "'With hair of fire and eyes filled with the night sky, the child of time was born.'" Theosis seemed to quote something, and I wondered what was up with this place we were in. "Supper is ready!" A woman appeared in a doorway to our right and she was bowing. "This is my wife, Nymphadora." He introduced and she stood up straight. Tardis and I waved and they ushered us into a grand dining room with a painted ceiling and pillars decorating the room. The long table was littered with food, from ham to lamb, potatoes to olives, and many other sides. Tardis stared at the food longingly with wide eyes.

"This is our son, Phoebus." Nymphadora introduced a young boy with dark hair and bright blue eyes, he looked close to Tardis' age. "Hello." I waved and Tardis stayed hidden behind me sheepishly. "Phoebus, this is the Doctor and his daughter, Tardis." He looked up and quickly stood up to bow. "It's like everyone is worshipping us." I muttered to Tardis. The two of us sat next to each other while Theosis sat at the head of the table and Nymphadora and Phoebus sat to each side of him. Everyone started to pile their plates silently before Theosis asked, "Doctor, is it true that you have a blue box that can travel in the stars?" I smiled proudly. "Indeed I do." The family stared in awe and Nymphadora asked, "Do you have a wand that glows green and unlocks doors?" With a smirk, I pulled it out of my coat. "Yes, I do." With a click of a button, the tip glowed green and made its usual sonic noise. They were very impressed with it and they forgot to eat. I was blasted with questions left and right until the fold had started to get cold.

"I think we should go." Tardis whispered in my ear. I was disappointed, pleased with answering all these questions, but dismissed ourselves. "You can stay in our extra room!" Nymphadora offered, but I insisted. "Will you be back?" Theosis asked and I thought for a moment. There a reason the TARDIS brought us here, and I had a feeling that it had something to do with that church. "Of course." "Would you join us tomorrow evening, then? Phoebus has lessons tomorrow and I'm sure Tardis and him can acquaint one another. She seems like a bright girl." He complimented and I nodded. "Tomorrow evening, then!" We found our way to the front and departed for the TARDIS. "Wait, Dad." Tardis tugged on my sleeve and shut her eyes tightly. The TARDIS materialized in front of us and the wind of it landing brought up dust. "Well done!" I patted her head and opened the door.

"Go brush your teeth and head to bed." I pointed and Tardis ran off. I locked the doors behind me and started to look over the TARDIS computer files. The time was accurate, but something wasn't right. That church was bothering me. It's impossible for a church to be here, so what was one doing in the middle of this Roman town city? Everyone seemed to know me and Tardis. It was very fishy... "Dad, there's no toothpaste." Tardis appeared at the doorway downstairs in her pajamas toothbrush in hand. "Check the closet next to the kitchen." I leaned on the console and massaged the bridge of my nose. "There's none there!" Her muffled voice yelled and I sighed. "Check harder!" Silence. Then she called again, "I'm not seeing it!" With big reluctance I ran downstairs and found Tardis. "It's right here!" I snatched the tube from a top shelf and handed it to her. "I'm not tall enough to reach that!" She grabbed the tube and stormed off to the bathroom. "Teenagers." I mumbled and hopped back upstairs.

I pulled the monitor over and noticed it was acting strange. The screen was fuzzy and the image would come in and out with different pictures every time. I pulled out my sonic screwdriver and soniced the screen to fix it. It reverted back to its normal state and I continued to search through the database of theTARDIS. Nothing out of the ordinary came up, so I searched the computer for the next fun thing we could do after I figured out what was up here. Maybe we could visit Earth in the future sometime, where there's no crazy religion based on angels and me. "Wait a minute..." I used the TARDIS to look outside and found the church. "The angels..." I zoomed in.

"Dad?" I jumped and caught my breath. "Tardis! What are you still doing up?" She rubbed her eyes and yawned, "I just woke up. Couldn't go back to sleep." I shook my head with a slight smirk and walked with her downstairs. "Come on, you need your rest." Her bedroom door opened and the air temperature changed. Tardis crawled into bed and I pulled the covers over her. "Goodnight." I kissed her forehead and she pulled my sleeve. "Don't leave." I stopped and pulled up a chair next to her bed. She grabbed my hand and I sat back in the chair. Soon enough, I fell asleep, though the chair was very uncomfortable.


	6. Blink of an Eye

The next morning I woke up with an unbearable pain in my back and neck and Tardis' hand had disappeared and she was laying the opposite way curled up in the fetal position. I stood up from the chair and stretched my arms up to the ceiling. While trying not to wake my daughter up, I tip toed out of the room, but tripped on my feet once her bedroom door shut. I'm sure that would've woken her up, but I continued to tip toe up the stairs to the console room. I checked the time and it was nowhere remotely close to the evening. Impatient, I pushed some buttons, pulled some levers, and the TARDIS took off.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Tardis appeared behind me. "Flying. What else?" I pushed a button and the TARDIS jerked violently, knocking me off my feet to my back. "Dad!" Tardis put her hands on her hips and the ship leveled out. "You've gotta watch what you're doing before you get us lost!" She shut her eyes tight and the TARDIS slowed to land gently. "I'm not going to get us lost!" I stood up quickly and adjusted my bow tie. Her look of doubt was burning my forehead, but I turned to the monitor to see what time it was outside. It was about evening, so I told Tardis to get ready. "Make sure it's appropriate!" I yelled before the door downstairs closed and sat down to think of what could happen. The meeting could go well, there seemed to be nothing suspicious of wanting to meet with me. I was a figure in their "religion, " so they just want to talk with me.

Tardis returned in a purple tunic and a gold wreath circlet in her hair. "Ready to go learn?" I asked and she nodded "I already know a lot, Dad. It'll just be a review." She unconsciously boasted and I couldn't help but think about me when she said that. "Well, I'm supposed to be meeting with Theosis today, so let's get going!" I opened the door for her and locked it behind me. "Doctor!" I almost jumped at the sudden voice from ahead and looked up to see who it was. Theosis was coming from his front door to the TARDIS with Phoebus and a stranger, the teacher most likely, by his side. "I was thinking we should talk in the church, if you don't mind that is." He quickly added and stroked his thick beard. "That sounds good. Tardis," I turned us away and mumbled important advice to her. "I don't want that boy talking to you. Just go along with the lesson and ignore him. No eye contact, no contact period." Tardis rolled her eyes and I kept ranting on. "I don't care if he bribes you with custard, you can't have any relationship with this boy. You are mere acquaintances. Got it?" She nodded without looking at me. "Got it?" I repeated with a little more force. "I'll be fine, Dad. I'm not a little kid." She turned to go with Phoebus and his teacher back into their house and Theosis and I started to stroll towards the church.

"I'd like to hear more about this blue box of yours, Doctor." Theosis started after we were away from his home. "Well, what do you want to know about it?" I put my hands in my pockets and stared around at my surroundings. "How do you fit inside of it? It doesn't look big enough to fit you, your daughter, and whatever powers your box." I couldn't help but chuckle. "That's a very popular question I get. I could show you-" "Oh no! It's fine. I don't want to waste time walking back." He insisted, and I went on with describing the TARDIS. "Well, it's bigger on the inside. There's an infinite amount of rooms in it, including bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, a library with a swimming pool, and so many more that even I don't know of." I smiled, almost forgetting about the pool. Me and Tardis have to go swimming some time... "I've read that you can also travel to yesterday, or even tomorrow!" I nodded and added, "It can travel to the time you were born and the time you die."

Theosis opened a familiar wooden door and politely let me into the church. "Thank you." I nodded and waited for him to join me. "Doctor, it's said that you are not from around here, and that you come from the stars. Is it true?" I raised a brow in suspicion, but answered truthfully. "Yes. I'm from a different planet. So I am alien to you humans." Theosis' eyes widened. Before I could ask a question, we were interrupted yby a voice that echoed from inside the main room. "Theosis? Is that you?" Our heads turned and we followed the voice.

Inside was a priest in white robes with three red-robed people. "Ah, Father Gracio!" Theosis gave a small, polite bow and so did Father. "I see you've brought the Doctor." He acknowledged my presence and I waved. "We never met, I am Gracio." He unmasked himself and shook hands with me. It stroke me odd that they were fully dressed in their robes, but even more so by the fact that we shook hands instead of bowing like Theosis. "Hello, Gracio." I greeted and he invited the two of us to sit with him. "If you really want us to. Is that okay, Doctor?" It felt strange having someone ask my permission, but I nodded. Gracio led us into a room behind a curtain which had a table set up, complete with plates, cups, and silverware. "Sit. I'll have refreshments out in a moment." Gracio nodded and disappeared through another door.

"How long have you been in town, Doctor?" Gracio returned with a platter of cheese and bread. "Not very long. Me and Tardis just got here." I took some of the food and took a big bite. "Hm, she's your daughter, correct?" I nodded, not wanting to get too much into detail about her. "How old is she?" "Honestly, I have no idea." "You must surely know your own daughter's age, Doctor?" Theosis frowned and took a drink from his cup. It was true, though. She was born in the TARDIS and doesn't really have a birthday. I'd estimate her to be maybe nine years old, by technicality. She looked no older than 13, though, so it'd be strange telling them she was only nine. "It is said that she was born from time itself." This raised my suspicion and I stood up. "I better go check on Tardis. She has medicine to take." I lied but Gracio and Theosis laughed. "Oh, Doctor, you're not going anywhere." I pushed aside the curtain that we came through but almost fell back when I saw what was standing in the way.

There, lifeless and frozen was a statue. Not just any statue, but a Weeping Angel. I kept my gaze on it and started to think about what was going on. "The Angels have gotten restless since you and your daughter arrived, Doctor. But we've been expecting you for a long time now." "And how long would that be?" I never took my eyes off of the statue and felt someone's hands grab my shoulders from behind. "Don't worry. They're with us." Gracio pulled me back and forced me into a chair and jammed something around my wrists. I felt it tighten and make a mechanical sound. "Did you just put self-adjusting handcuffs on me?" That was a bit advanced for ancient Rome. "Where did you even get these?"

"They're ours, of course. Theosis had reentered the room with different clothes on. It seemed to be a uniform, but I didn't recognize it from any group I'd met before. It was just a one piece skin suit that was black with a logo on the chest. There was an arc stretching from shoulder to shoulder and an upside down V that went to his waist and wrapped around to his back. It formed a capital "A." These two weren't from this time, and I wanted to know why they were here. "Theosis," "That's not my real name, Doctor. It's Krato." He snapped and I sighed. "Krato, what organization do you work for?" He noticed that I was staring at the "A" on his chest. "It stands for-" "Krato, we must retrieve the girl." I just realized that she was with Krato's son, if that even was his real son, and was in danger. "Don't you lay a finger on her!" I struggled to get myself free, though my attempts were futile. "We won't hurt her, Doctor. We're just going to bring her here." Gracio tried to reassure, but I knew he really didn't care about what I believed.

I finally remembered to ask what the Angels were doing here. "We've formed an alliance. Ever since we came here, we've been sending people back by using the Angels. That's what the 'Choosing' is every Wednesday. A random citizen is chosen and they are sent back, leaving the Angels to feast on the energy." Gracio explained. "The Angels didn't consume all of it though, we wanted to create an anomaly that would attract the TARDIS here. Therefore trapping you and your daughter." Krato finished. "How long have you been here?" I gave up trying to break free and sat calmly in my chair. "Only a couple years to us, but about 50 years to them." "What about the church?" Gracio smirked. "I'm glad you asked. I know this has been bothering you since you came here." He started to pace slowly around the table. "Well, after we made the alliance with the Angels a couple years ago, we decided to try and trap you somewhere, but we'd have to lure you somewhere very discreet and unsuspecting. Made up a religion based on the Angels then started to spread it around the locals. We would sit in our ship just above the city monitoring all the conversations and seeing when it'd die out. When it did start to decline, we sent a troop down to spark the idea up again." "You used time travel though. You don't look like you're older than fifty." Gracio nodded. "You're as clever as they claim." I smiled at the compliment and he continued.

"Skip a decade or so in the future, and the people of this city recognized this religion. It grew more and more popular, but we managed to keep it strictly in this city. Soon enough, maybe twenty-five years after setting up our operation here, a church was brought into the picture. The people got their suggestion accepted and the church was to be built on the hill where the temple for Poseidon previously sat. Thus we sent down troops to pose as priests and I became the leader of that objective. Krato over here was at the top of the hierarchy, so we had a man on the inside, just in case. And he proved to be useful, you're sitting in handcuffs right now, aren't you?" Gracio finished and I shrugged. "It's not the first time I've been handcuffed, and it won't be the last." I suddenly remembered Pond and River. I hid my emotions from my captors and looked to the other end of the table to see guns.

"What do you need those for?" Krato smirked with a dark chuckle. I frowned almost instantly and struggled in the chair as I yelled in rage, "You better not shoot my daughter!" Krato slipped his toga over his suit and put the sandals on. "What are you going to do, Doctor? You don't kill." He scoffed, but before he walked out the door I replied with fire in my eyes, "You obviously don't know me." As soon as it slipped out, I regretted it, thinking about what Tardis would say. The look on her face would be utter fear, I couldn't handle that. Gracio left with Krato in his snow white robes and glared back at me with... was that guilt in his eyes? The door shut and I was left alone with the silence and the table.

The silence was eating at my brain and I couldn't sit still for long, so I started to think about escape plans. If my hands weren't behind me, it'd be so much easier to grab my sonic screwdriver. "My screwdriver!" I exclaimed. I kept it in my coat pocket at all times for situations like this. I curled my head into my chest and tilted my head to my left into my coat. Thank goodness for this inside pocket. It took a moment to grab a mouthful of the screwdriver, but I finally got it so I could bite the button. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was my ticket out of here. I pointed the tip of it towards my hands, and felt it loosen. It was enough for me to wiggle up out of the chair and finally unlock the cuffs.

I was glad I looked up after that, because I completely forgot about the Angel. It had its arms up over its head, ready to scare the daylight out of me. My heart pounded and I kept close to the wall so none, if there were any more, could get me from behind. The Angel kept still and I started to shuffle to the side, not taking my eyes off it. Just one blink could get me trapped in another time without my TARDIS. Then the unbelievable happened: I tripped and blinked. As soon as I realized my mistake, I looked up, but the Angel had disappeared. I was hesitant, but I blinked once more, and no Angels appeared. There were footsteps, though, which caught me off guard. There was a closet and I hid inside before they could find me.

"We've got a surprise for you Doc-" Krato's voice stopped abruptly and it turned into an enraged howl. "What? How did he escape?" "Because he's better than you!" I was put at ease at my daughter's voice, but then heard her squeal in pain. "You could be a little gentler, at least!" She snapped and I thought about why they needed her. _To get to me. Thats usually why they kidnap my companions..._ I thought and waited for Krato to leave. After it was silent for a couple moments, I came out of hiding and put my sonic screwdriver away before peeking in the crack of the curtains that led to the main entrance. "He can't be gone! Those are the best handcuffs in the universe! It's _impossible _to get out of them!" Gracio's voice echoed through the vast room. "Well, he's not there!" Krato growled back. "Never mind him, he'll come back for the girl." Gracio calmed down and Tardis snapped, "He's cleverer than that! He'll come and save everyone before you even know what hit you!" At that point I was proud to call her my daughter. "Oh shut up. Once we're through with you, our job is done! We can finally go back to our families and live normal lives." Krato rolled his eyes and pulled Tardis, who was bound in the same cuffs I was trapped in, behind him towards the door. Gracio followed close behind and once they'd disappeared I looked around the room for any Angels.

_Why did they say that? "Once we're done with you?" So they really are going to kill her? Well, I'm not going to let them. _I tiptoed to the front doors and climbed up the stone benches that flanked it. I peeked up out the window and was horrified at what I saw. There, high and tall, was a wooden platform. There were winding stairs that led to the top and a crowd was gathered below it. It seemed like they had everything ready for a ritual of some sort. Gracio, Krato, and two guards escorted Tardis across the stage towards a wooden stake. The handcuffs were taken off her and she kicked Krato with all of her strength. "How dare-!" Gracio put a hand on Krato's shoulder and the two guards tied her arms behind her back and around the wooden stake. "Citizens, it seems that our guests were imposters! This isn't the real Child of Time, nor was her companion the Doctor," Gracio greeted the crowd with a fake loss of hope. "This young lady, though, has been Chosen!" He pointed at Tardis from the other end of the stage. The crowd murmured restlessly and quieted down when Gracio lifted his hands up to quiet them. "We must show these impersonators the glory of being chosen. It is an honor, no doubt." The people all looked sad and afraid. Probably afraid of what this "Choosing" was.

"First, we must bow our heads down and pray." Everyone looked down with their eyes closed and started to repeat what Gracio was announcing. The guard to the left blindfolded Tardis, who started to panic, and closed his own eyes as he relaxed. No one was looking... "Oh no." I finally realized what was going on, and tried to run out the doors before it could happen. I forced the big heavy doors open and ran towards the platform. I was about to shout, but something stopped me from moving and it caught me off guard. I looked behind me, and instantly regretted it. "Tardis!" I yelled, and she blindly turned her head in my direction. "Da-?" Her words were cut off. And I looked up, too little too late. The Angel that was holding me had ran off somewhere else and I stood there, feeling like an empty shell. Standing where Tardis was just a second ago was a stone Angel with its finger pointed out. It had gotten her. She was trapped in another time and I couldn't save her. She slipped from my fingers just like all my other friends had.

"It was for your own good, Doctor." Gracio was looking down at me from the platform. My head whipped up and glared at him. "What good can come from taking my _only _family away from me?" "We'd explain, but I don't know if you're ready for it..." Gracio bowed his head. "You've taken away my little girl, don't tell me what you did was right!" I fell to my knees and fought the tears that hadn't been shed for many years since Clara had gone. "Doctor," Gracio had appeared behind me and had his hand gently resting on my shoulder. I didn't feel anything after that. The crowd of people disappeared, all their voices, Krato, Gracio; they were all nonexistent from that point on. I couldn't feel my hands or my legs. All control in my arms were lost, so they just hung to my sides limply. It seemed like a lifetime before I looked up and acknowledged the fact that everyone was gone, even the stone Angel that zapped Tardis back in time.

It was then that I heard a familiar vworp noise.

My head whipped up towards the noise and I could see that the TARDIS was materializing, disappearing and reappearing with every vworp. There was only one way that could be happening, and it was very unlikely, for that matter. When the blue box was solid, I waited until the door swung open. Standing there was a teenage girl with firey ginger hair and a smirk from ear to ear. I stared in awe at her as she ran to me. I jumped to my feet and she lealed a

nd gave me a hug. I swung her off her feet and didn't let go. "How?" Was all I could get out of my mouth and she explained. "I brought the TARDIS to me and came back here." Her voice was muffled by my shirt and coat as she dug her face into my chest. "Okay, can't... breathe..." I choked out and she loosened her death grip on me. "I still can't believe you're here. I thought... I thought I'd-" "Never see me again?" I said no more and hugged her, not wanting to let go ever again.

I stroked her thick ginger hair and kissed the top of her head. "How

about we get some lunch and settle down, eh?" She let go of me then snapped her fingers and tthe doors swung open. "How does fish fingers and custard sound?" I put my arm around her shoulder and led her downstairs to the kitchen. "How long was I gone, Dad?" She asked while I searched through the fridge for the instant custard and frozen fish fingers. "I don't know... I lost track of time..." I looked down at my feet guiltily but when I turned to go back to the fridge I smiled at Tardis. "Do you want fruit with yours?" She nodded. "Blueberries, please." The fridge didn't seem to have any, but I kept digging through. Finally, I stood up, not without hitting my head on the fridge, and put on a fake sad face. "Seems like we're out of blueberries," Tardis sighed in disappointment, but I continued. "I've heard that the best blueberries grow on a mountain on Stroyat. We could always take a field trip..." I tried to keep myself from smiling. Tardis nodded with anticipation, and didn't have to wait for me to tell her to get dressed.


	7. Surprise Visits

One day I decided that we should visit Earth and see some sights. I especially loved London, though, so I thought that I'd show Tardis the different places we could go. "I've got a surprise, Tardis!" I peeked my head into her room but she wasn't sitting on her bed or at her desk. "Tardis?" I roamed the corridors calling her name and getting silence in return. "Tardis! Where are you?" I found myself at the library and took a step inside. I called her name one more time and heard my voice echo. This one was a bust, so I turned on my heel to go search for her more, until I heard something from behind me, that is. I stepped deeper into the library and followed the source of the random noise. "Come out, Tardis! I've got a trip planned for us!" Something dropped and I ran towards it.

Sitting at the end of the aisle of bookshelves was Tardis with her nose in a book. As I got closer, I noticed stacks of thick books next to her and tilted my head to read the spines. "_Atomic Studies, Ages in History, Quantum Physics._ Tardis, how long have you been in here?" She turned a page without any response except a finger telling me one minute. Next she placed her fingertip on the page and looked up at me. "Um, 8 hours 15 minutes and 30 seconds." That was pretty impressive. "How many have you read?" She looked at the bookshelves and answered, "All of those." My eyes actually widened and I rremembered why I was looking for her. "I've got a surprise for you. Come on." I held out my hand and she placed a bookmark inside her book before accepting it.

"If it's a fez, Dad, you can have it." She sighed and I opened the library doors for her, offended. "I swear it's not a fez this time." I promised and pulled her through the halls of the lower levels of the TARDIS. "Don't lie to me, Dad." She seemed really eager to go back and read her books. "I'm not lying to you!" I ran up the steps and covered her eyes with my hands. "So it really is a surprise? " "Of course! I told you I wasn't lying!" I sighed and guided her towards the front doors. With a pull, the door opens and I almost uncover Tardis' eyes from startlement. "Don't open your eyes yet!" I tried to be as relaxed as possible, but it was difficult since I opened the door to lava instead of real ground. "Dad, why is it so hot?" I shut the door with my foot and shuffled Tardis and I to the console.

I tried to flip switches and push buttons, but it was nearly impossible for me to do so without falling over. "Dad, what was the surprise?" "One moment." I took one hand off and kept her face covered with my left as I finally got my ship to lift off. She landed gently, thank God, and I returned to the front doors. "Okay, take a look," I took my hands off her face and swung the door open. "Is this?" She whipped her head towards me and I nodded. "Are we going to go down there?" I nodded and she hugged me. The view of Earth from up here _was _beautiful. I flicked a small piece of asteroid that was floating by the doorway and Tardis turned to face outside.

She took in the view and I knew she was trying real hard to contain her excitement. I looked down at her and she returned the gesture. "Wanna go down and explore?" She nodded vigorously and closed the doors with her mind-powers. "I thought you'd never ask." The TARDIS started to vworp and I held on to some railing while we landed. I will admit, not out loud, though, Tardis was a better flyer than I was. "Come on, Dad! We've landed, let's go!" She tried to pull me to the doors, but I resisted. "You don't even know where we've landed." I pulled her with more strength and dragged her with me to the monitor. "Hmm... Tardis, you've landed us on the middle of the Sahara!" "Is that good?" She jumped and I shook my head. "That's a desert. I wanted to show you somewhere special." I materialized the TARDIS within seconds and then offered my hand. She took it and I smiled before I opened the door again.

Instead of outer space, we walked out to the streets of London. People walked by with their eyes glued to the screens of their phones. Tardis was speechless, and didn't say a word until I poked her shoulder. "Where do you want to start?" I asked. "I don't even know!" "Let's go get a cuppa, shall we?" I'm sure she didn't even know what that was, but she nodded. It was quite ironic, this situation; I usually amazed my companions with planets and aliens, but this time I was showing off Earth. A simple, yet beautiful planet that was still young.

"How can all these people not be looking around them? It's so wonderful here!" She stared up at the sky and clouds while we were walking down the sidewalk to a cafe. It was quite difficult to pull Tardis inside, but I got us a seat outside so she could sightsee from our seats. "Two teas please. And some plain biscuits please." I added and the waitress disappeared back inside. "We haven't even seen the best yet." I tapped my finger on the desk and crossed my leg. "What? What could be better than this?" She gestured to everythig in front of her. "There's many more to see, Tardis. Ooh, tea!" I sat up excitedly and couldn't wait for the cups to be placed on the metal table. Cream and sugar were included, and I saw Tardis look at the drink skeptically. "It's tea! Go on, have a sip." I stirred some sugar and cream into mine and smiled after I took a sip of the satisfactory warmth.

Tardis took my advice and took a tiny sip of her drink and scrunched her face up."I don't like it." She pushed the saucer and cup away from her. "You didn't even sweeten it!" She looked over at the sugar and started to stir in some spoonfuls. After another sip, she kept putting more and more in until I'm sure her tea was a sugar with tea. "Let me have a taste." I reached out and she slid the cup to me. I tasted it and almost spit it back out because it was much too sweet. "I like it, it tastes good." She frowned and I shook my head saying, "You drink it how you want to drink it." I finished mine and remembered the biscuits that were brought for us. "Try one of these." I handed her a biscuit and she inspected it. "It's sweet, you'll like it." I assured and she took a nibble. With alarming speed, Tardis started chowing down biscuit after biscuit. "Save some for me! They aren't unlimited, you know!" I claimed some of the biscuits before they were gone. She wanted more, but I shook my head. "You'll get a tummy ache and then we'll have to go back to the TARDIS and wait for it to pass." I scolded.

After our snack, we explored the shops and any other attractionswe came across. "Dad, what is that?" She pointed and I followed her eyes. "That, Tardis, is the London Eye. It is a ferris wheel, would you like to-" "Yes!" She interrupted and we ran to the Eye.

* * *

After about an hour of waiting, we finally made it to the front of the line. We filed in with a few other tourists and claimed our spot behind the glass facing the river. Most had their cameras out and weee reading brochures. A lot looked American, but there was a little girl and her mum that had the native tongue. "Mummy! Look! We're starting to go up!" She pointed and the mother smiled sweetly.

Tardis shared the same enthusiasm as the little girl and had her face pinned to the glass. She looked like it was Christmas morning and she was opening presents. I was glad I could make her happy by showing her just an average city with average people. It made me feel very proud to show the brilliance in something so average. It wasn't the normal showing off to impress somebody, it was the fact that Tardis was so excited about Earth that made me smile like her even though I'd been to Earth many times before.

"Dad!" Tardis exclaimed and I snapped out pf my deep thoughts to look outside. We were at the peak of the Eye and I could see the river and all the buildings from this height. "It's so beautiful!" She kept looking around at the tiny people and cars below her. I'll never forget that look of pure joy on her face.

We descended and I almost lost track of the time because Tardis had to tug on my arm to get my attention. "Dad, come on!" I shook my head to wake myself up and exited the pod. "Did you like it?" I wondered and Tardis hugged ke suddenly. "It was the best day ever!" She held on tighter and I patted her back as I returned the hug. "Oh my God! What is _that_?" A woman from the line screamed and pointed to the sky.

Tardis and I looked up and saw something breaking through the clouds. It couldn't be, not now, not here. There's only one reason they'd be here and that was because I was here. Up in the clouds was a ship of one of my most horrible and evil enemies. "The Daleks." Tardis beat me to ot and I felt her grip my coat tighter. Everyone around us was screaming and scrambling like wild animals. I made sure Tardis didn't get separated from me and we ran. Back towards the TARDIS was the safest place to go to for now.

I wanted to know why the Daleks would bring a giant ship like this to Earth. They didn't need a whole fleet to take over, if that was their intention. They could be trying to have reinforcements in case I outwit them. Their appearance here was unexpected and unwanted, and it scared Tardis. I could just tell. Though she knew about them, Tardis had never come close to a Dalek before, and I didn't want her getting hurt.

On the way back to the TARDIS we almost got separated by the flow of people against us. At this time, we heard the crying of a nearby little girl. Tardis found her sitting on the steps of an empty store. She looked no older than six and had dirty and raggedy clothes on. Her long dark hair was braided back and her attire consisted of a simple, green light jacket with mittens dangling from the sleeves; blue trainers with dirt all over them; and a plain blue dress torn at the bottom. It looked like she'd been through a lot.

"Excuse me," Tardis tapped her shoulder and kneeled down to her level and I mirrored her. "Did you lose your mummy?" The girl sniffed and wiped her cheeks with a nod. Without even asking me, Tardis invited her to come with us. "My dad and I can help you find her, okay?" She nodded and Tardis held out her hand. The girl just sat there and waited for something to happen. After I caught a glimpse of her eyes, I knew what was up with her. "Tardis, she's blind." I whispered in her ear and she reached for the girl's little hand. "What's your name, dear?" She asked sweetly. "Lucille Troy." Tardis helped the girl up. "I'm Tardis, and this is my dad," "The Doctor." I introduced myself and I gestured that we needed to hurry. "Lucille, is it okay if I hold you? We need to run." Lucille nodded and added, "You can call me Lucy." Tardis scooped up Lucy and threw her on her back. "Hold on tight. She warned and we took off again.

The screams of people rang in the air as we ran. The people were panicking and I could understand why; if a giant space ship appeared in the sky you'd want to get away. We were running towards it, however.

We finally reached the TARDIS, and the door swung open. I totally forgot that Tardis could control her. Why didn't we just materialize it here? We wouldn't have found Lucy, which would've been very unfortunate for her. "Where are we? It sounds different in here." Lucy asked as Tardis slid her off her back. "We're in my ship." I pulled the monitor over and tried to get as much information as I could before anything happened. "What's happening? Where's my mummy?" She sounded like she was going to cry again. "She's looking for you. We're going to try and find her." Tardis jumped in and kept a firm grip on Lucy's hand. She started to whimper and I felt really bad. She was lost, with strangers, and on top of that she was blind. "We're going to make sure you get back to your mum, okay?" I turned and she stopped crying. "How about you and Tardis go play something?" I hinted and my daughter nodded.

I was left alone with my thoughts and silence. I hopped up and ran to tye monitor. Daleks were flooding out into the skies and I frowned. What did they want? My question was answered almost immediately when a robotic voice boomed from outside. _"Attention, humans of Earth, the Daleks have invaded your inferio planet. The rest of our superior army is waiting outside your atmosphere and out of reach." _I had heard enough of the Dalek and started the TARDIS up to travel us to the military base. It was technically a "secret" base, but I loved breaking into their bases. "Dad?" Tardis' voice echoed from downstairs and I wondered why she wasn't with Lucy. "Why aren't you with Lucy?" I ran around the console. I heard her footsteps coming from the stairs and catch a glimpse of Tardis. "I'm taking a field trip. Now go back to Lucille, she must be scared right now." I scolded and noticed that I used Lucy's full name.

Once Tardis had left I focused on flying to the underground base. I wondered how they'd react to my sudden appearance in their "high-security" facility. I whistled a tune and landed gently before I ran downstairs to call for Tardis. "Ready to go?" She popped out of her bedroom and I jumped. "Don't do that!" I blinked and she giggled. "I am. How about you two?" She nodded and Lucy hid behind Tardis sheepishly. When she revealed herself, I noticed that she was cleaned up, her skin wasn't ridden with dirt, and she had a fresh new outfit. Instead of a torn blue dress, she had a clean red, long sleeve dress and shiny new black shoes. "Hello! I see yyou've gotten a bath!" I smiled and Lucy nodded. "Well, we're about to go surprise some people who most likely have guns. Isn't that exciting?"

Tardis guided Lucy upstairs to the console room and I looked back at them before I put my hand on the handle. "Just stay behind me until they put their guns down, okay?" They both nodded and I pulled the handle and strolled out with some confidence. "Who are you? How did you find this place?" I looked around, and sure enough, there were soldiers with guns pointed at me. I put my hands up, but gestured for Tardis to come out with Lucy. "I'm the Doctor, and this is my daughter, Tardis with her friend Lucy." I pointed, still with my hands up, and Lucy greeted naïvely, "How do you do?" The soldiers moved restlessly. "Howdid you find this place?" I thought I should be witty, but decided to give a plain answer since we were on a time crunch. "This isn't as secure as you think, now who runs this place?" I kept my hands up, but got on my tip toes so I could attempt to look over their helmets.

"Stand down, soldiers!" A man's voice boomed from behind the line and they parted to make an opening to the stranger. "You must be the Doctor?" He shook my hand with admiration. "Farland. Thomas Farland. It's such an honor to finally meet you." He let go but my hand kept shaking and I looked down and stopped it with my left. "Oh, darling, don't scare him." A woman appeared and all the soldiers went to attention. "At ease. Hello, Doctor. Yes, we know who you are, now help us fix this Dalek problem of ours." She turned on her heel and briskly strolled back the way she came with a vibe of superiority. Tardis grabbed my hand and pulled Lucy behind her as we followed her and Thomas.

"You're probably wondering who I am? I'm Genaveve. I am the top dog at this place." She gloated and I finally got to talk. "Yes. Now, what year is this, again?" I asked while staring around at my surroundings, which was a tunnel lit by dim red lights. "The year? 2015." Genaveve looked at a watch on her wrist and hastened her pace. "Hurry, now, I'm sure these Daleks don't want to wait for us." She joked and chuckled quietly. I looked back at Tardis and Lucy, very confused, and kept following the two strangers before we came across a door. It required some certain handprints and such, but they finally opened to a vast room full of people behind computer screens with headsets. All I could hear was tons of voices all talking at once, and I'm sure Lucy wasn't enjoying this either.

"What's with all the people?" I wondered. "Our emergency hotline. We dispatch and deal with any problems in the city." She guided us to a pair of doors on the other side of the room and two guards opened it for us. "This is where we'll be working." There were people on computers and other devices all around us. "What should we do, Doctor?" I glanced back at my daughter and Lucy then to the large screen in the front of the room; which had an image of the Dalek's ship. "We find out what they want."


End file.
